Light Scribe Technology

LightScribe Labeling Software and Capatible Discs

There is now an easy, neat and efficient way to label CD and DVD disks without the hassle of purchasing paper labels, using printer ink or having to grab a permanent ink marker, before you forget the disk content. The same laser used to burn the data to the disk is used to make the label for the reverse side of the disk. It can be used with either a desktop PC or notebook computer since it’s not tethered to standard printer. LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling technology is a stand-alone printer/disk drive and being compact, it’s very portable.

LightScribe, a registered trademark of Hewlett Packard, and is the first optical disc recording technology that utilizes specially-coated recordable CD and DVD media. The useful system produces laser-etched labels text or graphics, instead of the traditional stick-on labels and printable discs. To take advantage of LightScribe technology, a LightScribe-enabled disc drive, LightScribe-enabled discs, and supporting software is required. An economical 100-pack of Aleratec LightScribe capatible DVD disks is available from Midwest Merchandise at: http://www.midwest-merchandise.com.


Personal digital photos or images may be used by saving artwork in a bitmap, TIFF or JPEG format. However, LightScribe-enabled software comes with a variety of backgrounds. Available background types are: Title, Content, and Full, which refer to how much radial space the label will cover. You can also choose circular or straight text, though using curved text will cut down on burn time. Inverting colors or making a "negative" of an image can make for a dramatic effect when burning a LightScribe label. The more detailed the graphic is, the longer it takes for the drive to burn the label.


After burning data to the read-side of the disc, the user simply turns the medium over and inserts it with the label side down. The disk drive's laser etches into the label side in such a way that a high-quality image is produced.

Currently, it's impossible to rewrite a LightScribe label, but it's possible to add more content to a label that has already been burned. LightScribe will not burn a laser image onto non-LightScribe capable discs.

LightScribe is compatible with PCs using Windows 2000 and XP. To use LightScribe with a Mac, you'll need Mac OS X 10.3, a LaCie DVD-RW external double layer drive and a DVD-RW internal drive.

LightScribe disk drives and recordable discs are used by up- and-coming music artists wanting to showcase promotional CDs. For any individual or company desiring to put forth professional, high-quality collateral, Aleratec CD-R 100-Pack for LightScribe Direct Disk Labeling DVD, is an economically necessity for use with the LightScribe system.
The bottom line:

No purchase of disc label sheets necessary.
No need to insert and remove the label sheets in/out of your printer.
No need to remember which side of the label sheet is supposed to be laid in the printer tray.
No need to un-jam CD-label sheets stuck in the printer rollers.

Soon, HP may very well incorporate LightScribe technology in every newly manufactured CPUs.